Daily Manna from Heaven

“The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.” -Genesis 49:10

In 1954 C.S. Lewis, the late professor of Medieval English at Cambridge University, published a satire on Christmas which he called, “Exmas and Christmas.” In this essay he talked about a strange island called “Niatrib” which is really Britain, his home country spelled backwards.

In Niatrib a festival evolved which became known as Exmas, one that filled the markets with crowds of people who wore themselves out with shopping, festivities, and the weariness of sending cards and gifts. All of this rush and weariness, Lewis described as “Kafuffle”—a word which he invented.

The whole process was further complicated by the fact that the residents of Niatrib kept careful records of the value of each gift which was received so that they, in turn, could return a gift of equal value the following Exmas. Kathryn Lindskoog describes it, saying, “Everyone becomes so pale and weary that it looks as if calamity has struck. Exhausted with the rush, most citizens lie in bed until noon on the day of the festival.

Later that day they eat far too much and get intoxicated. On the day after Exmas they are very grave because they feel unwell and begin to calculate how much they have spent on Exmas and the Rush.”

Lewis believed that a few people in Niatrib really know about the true meaning of Exmas which they Crissmas, c-r-i-s-s-m-a-s, but they are so overwhelmed by the “kafuffle” of the season that the real significance does not mean much.

Unfortunately, Lewis’s “Niatrib” has become “Everytown,” and many of us are citizens who become so overwhelmed with the season, we have little time to grasp the reality of the event. C.S. Lewis was not a cynic who was down on celebrating Christmas, but he was death on prostituting a sacred event, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, into an occasion for celebration and commercialization.

In an article Lewis wrote a couple of years later, he denounced the commercial racket, saying that it causes more pain to people than pleasure. He asked the question, “Can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter?”

This may be too late this year, for perhaps you have already worn yourself out with the “kafuffle” of the Exmas Rush, as Lewis described it; but it is not too late to stop everything, pour yourself a cup of coffee, find your Bible and turn to Luke, chapter two. The story of Christmas, the real, authentic version, is so simple that for centuries men have embellished it with make-believe additions.

It is the story of God’s reaching down to touch earth with the presence of His Son, and earth’s reaching above our passionate failure and sinful degradation to become God’s children. Lewis put it so succinctly: “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God.” That is it, precisely!

Are you a descendant of Lewis’s mythical tribe of Niatrib, wounded by the festivities and perplexed with the doubt of unbelief? Christmas means HOPE, hope that there is ultimate meaning to existence, hope that there is God’s forgiveness, hope that we are not forsaken in a world of spiritual pygmies and ethical infants.

Long ago the aged Apostle John recaptured the essence of the incarnation as he wrote, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning…The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14).

Yes, let us discover the reality of Christmas.

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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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When the Viet Nam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.    

About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door.  A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said, “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life.  He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.    

The young man held out his package. “I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.”    

The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture.

“Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me.  It’s a gift.”   

The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. On the platform sat the painting of the son.

The auctioneer pounded his gavel. “We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?”

There was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted. “We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.” But the auctioneer persisted. “Will someone bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?”  

Another voice shouted angrily.  “We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!” But still the auctioneer continued. “The son!  The son!  Who’ll take the son?”

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room.  It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. “I’ll give $10 for the painting.” Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.  “We have $10, who will bid $20?”

“Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters.”

“$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?”

 The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.   

The auctioneer pounded the gavel.  “Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!” A man sitting on the second row shouted. “Now let’s get on with the  collection!”  

The auctioneer laid down his gavel. “I’m sorry, the auction is over.”

“What about the paintings?”  

“I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!”    

God gave his son 2,000 years ago to die on a cruel cross.

Much like  the auctioneer, His message today is, “The son, the son, who’ll take the  son?”  Because you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.

“For God so loved the world,

that He gave His only begotten Son,

that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”

-John 3:16-

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The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

“Do I have to believe in Jesus to be a Christian?” asked a young man whose Russian Jewish background had never exposed him to the Gospel. Having been raised in a home in the former Soviet Union where God was seldom if ever discussed, he had heard about Jesus but didn’t really know how He would fit into Christianity. He wanted to know. How would you answer that question? There are millions of people whose backgrounds are nominally Christian who still don’t understand the relationship between Jesus Christ and Christianity.

“Are you a Christian?” I once asked a man. He thought for a moment and then replied, “Well, I suppose so since I’m not a Muslim or a Jew.” For millions of people around the world, the term broadly defines ethnic and, to a degree, religious roots. We think of countries such as the Philippines in Asia, the United States in the Americas and North Ireland in Europe as “Christian” nations. But painting nations with such a broad, sweeping brush is a generalization which allows a lot of space between the brush marks.

Let’s go back to the question of the young man who wanted to know, “What does Jesus Christ have to do with Christianity?” Would it be more valid to turn the question around and ask, “What does Christianity have to do with Jesus Christ?”

Do you happen to remember the first use of the term, “Christian” or “Christians?” In Jesus’ day, those who followed Him were never identified as Christians. Disciples? Yes, they would have acknowledged that. Peter, Andrew, James and John would have been quite proud to be identified as disciples of Jesus. All great leaders had followers who were known as disciples. But ethnically, they were Jews and proud of their heritage.

It was about 15 years after the church was established before disciples were called Christians, and when that happened, the term was one of derision and scorn. Luke tells us about it, saying that when Barnabas found Saul—later known as the Apostle Paul, “he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year,” writes Luke, “Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.” Then he adds, “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26).

One of the major reasons why the term Christianity should never be used as a term defining a religion is that Christianity really involves a relationship, not simply a lifestyle or a system of beliefs. The creed of the early church stressed who Jesus was and what He did—not what people must say or believe to belong to a church.

One of the earliest statements of belief held by the infant church was Paul’s brief creed found in his first letter to the Corinthians. He put it like this: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

When the young man asked, “Do I have to believe in Jesus to be a Christian?” and he got the answer, “Yes. That’s what it is all about.” He responded, “I’m not yet ready,” but he got involved in a Bible study and began to read the New Testament, something he had never done seriously before.

A few weeks later, he was ready, and confessed Jesus Christ as His personal Savior. Today, he not only has joined a church which he attends regularly, but he sings in the choir and participates actively in sharing His faith with others.

The acid proof of disciples, taught Jesus, does not involve your belief system—though what you believe determines what you do. It first involves your relationship with Jesus Christ, then with others. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples,” said, Jesus, “if you love one another” (John 13:34). It’s still true today.

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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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Who am I? I am just a worthless woman. My life was not holy just like the other Jews. I lived in a sinful life. Sometimes I think that GOD doesn’t care about my life. For the first time I fell into the adultery life, I feel guilty that I betrayed God’s law, but when I want to repent for my sin…. I was afraid…. really… I was afraid.

According to the Moses law, every people that commit adultery must be punished by stoned until death… yes I know it even I have done a sinful act. Where should I go then? I am not worthy anymore in front of GOD, that’s why I continue this life, day by day, year by year to search for the true love, to search for the true man that can comfort me into their arms.

I lost my virginity once when my first boyfriend rapped me. I was ashamed and I am crying… why this happened to me? No one answer and no one can help me. The Pharisee? Forget that stupid idea! They only know how to judge people but they are never help them. Ok, ok, they knew everything about Torah… but somehow I can’t approach those guys… I know they are evil, but compared with my life, I far more evil.

After my boyfriend has my virginity, he left me without saying a word…. well, what should I do then? I can’t go further to GOD because I have sinned already. I know that my heart empty…. I need love… a true love…. a love that can reform myself into the new woman. I search for the true man… hope that they can embrace me…. always there when I cry…… and…… never work. Once I meet with a man… they always see my body and then…. they just have a pleasure on me. All of them can’t give me a love that I hope and finally my heart always feels empty.

No… I don’t want to live my life like this anymore, but somehow my last boyfriend keep asking me to sleep with him. Then…. in one morning (I will not forget this nightmare), suddenly the Jews around neighborhood got inside the house. They are so many Jews, hundreds of them, with a loud voice, condemn me and suddenly drag me from my house…. They treat me like an animal, I even didn’t put a half of my cloth yet. Hundreds of people spit me right into my face; some of them slap my face, no… this is nightmare for me, HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! but it’s useless… no one can hear my voice in the middle of the crowds. I think this is it… yes…. finally I will be punished by stoned until death. A death penalty…. ok, this is my last time finally….

Before I die, somehow, both my heart and my soul crying unto The Lord. In the middle of the crowds I began to pray “O GOD, Jehovah, GOD of my ancestor Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I always knew generation by generation that You always keep Your promise. I know that I have sinned against You. I am ready to die GOD, yes… I am ready to die. One thing that I want to ask you: Please forgive my sin….” Well, I don’t know if GOD really hears my pray or not… Almost all the people beat me until I am in a half of unconscious.

In the middle of my unconscious, I laid down into the ground but I know that I have been dragged to some one with a great influence. I just only see his feet, but I don’t know how His face looks like. Then I heard some of The Pharisee and The Scribes tell something into this Man “Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? “….. oh no! He will punished me with death penalty. I also heard a sound of the rock in all people’s hand, ready to throw at me…. I am afraid, but nothing I can do….. But, still…. no answer from that Man….. he still busy to write something into the ground. Then The Pharisee and The Scribes ask Him for the second times… still…. no answer from Him. Third times, Fourth times, Fifth times….. This Man never replies their answer…… Until I heard all the people cry aloud… push this Man to put the death penalty unto me. I am confused, who is this Man? Why He still calm in the middle of the crowds?

Then suddenly, this Man rise up…. standing in front of the people and say “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her!!” … and suddenly the voice of the crowds stopped. Wow! He is no ordinary Rabbi…. He looks like GOD itself. More than a charisma that He has. Who is this Man? Why suddenly I feel that He is my defender? Why suddenly I feel that He is my savior? After He said His simple sentences, He come back to wrote something in the ground. I must admit that this Man was very, very calm. He remained unprovoked by other people. Very different with those Pharisee…. yes… very different. Who is This Man?

*crack*…..  I heard one stone falling into the ground….. no!… not one…. two… three…. four….. no!… there’s many….. I wonder if they have start to throwing at me. Still, I didn’t feel the pain in my body. Yes it is true that they start to leave the stone into the ground and start to leave me….

WHAT? I don’t believe they didn’t punished me! I try to look into them but I am still weak…. I still lay on the ground until I can hear only His finger writing into the ground…. I try hard to lift my face to look at this Great Man and finally I can lift my face… and look at Him, my Savior…

Yes… I can see His face look straight unto me and ask me “Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?”  Oh… what a voice…. His voice is not only full of justice, but somehow I fell that this voice comforts me and fill my empty heart with….. abundant love…. God’s love. In the middle of my surprised, I replied “No man, Lord”… yes no one… I can’t believe it. I am a sinner, actually I must be punished.  Wait !! maybe He is the one who will punished me! He stands as a judge and who knows that He is the one who have rights to kill me now. But, He replies again with an answer that…… changed my heart and my life forever “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. “

After He said so… then I know that He is Jesus from Nazareth. Many people talks about His miracle but I didn’t thought that He is so powerful like this. I can’t imagined with His other miracle. Just by His Word, He completely changed my life now! Although I only knew some of Torah….

Deep inside my heart, I know that He is GOD! The true man that can embrace me… comforts me when I am sad… and will always stand by my side….. stand in front of me right know! He touched me with a love of GOD… not with the love of human! More than a True Man, He is GOD itself…. and I believe that GOD heard my prayer…. and forgive me from all of my sin!

Thank you Lord Jesus… You are the true man that I searched for… Your love restored me as a new woman. Your love like a sunshine in my dark past. Now I am like a new born baby. This is my new beginning…. O Lord, what I supposed to do than stop to live a sinful life and follow Your way? Thank you so much…. Thank you GOD. I know now that You are always there…. I know that You are a living GOD….. Thank you Jesus, You are my Savior! (adapted from KJV Bible John 8:2-11)

“… Go, and sin no more.”

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“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.” -2 Corinthians 1:3

Few men ever have an encounter with a burning bush that will not go out, but Moses did. Few people ever audibly hear the voice of God, but Moses did. Few individuals are given supernatural signs which convince others that they have had an encounter with God, but Moses was! Yet–and I want you to make that word a bookmark for what I’m saying–yet Moses cried out to God: “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you…” (Exodus 33:13).

Ah, yes! Knowing God was the desire of his heart. So was it with Paul, who also had an encounter with Jesus Christ, God’s Son, unlike anything that you will ever read or hear about. Paul—then known as Saul of Tarsus—was on his way to the city of Damascus, and his was not exactly an errand of mercy. His objective was to find followers of Jesus Christ and to arrest them and put them in prison. Nice fellow, this Saul of Tarsus!

On the way, he was blinded by a great light, and Jesus Christ revealed Himself in such a way that Saul’s life was completely upended—conversion, we call it—and he became the great missionary-theologian-evangelist of the early church. Yet—remember that bookmark?–yet Paul voiced the earnest desire of his heart when he said, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10). Paul says that through “the fellowship of his sufferings” he came to know and experience Christ in a deeper, more intimate way than he would have if he had been spared the cup of grief and pain.

I am convinced that there are valleys and dark nights of the soul which no other one can really understand who has never walked through them personally. Like what? Like the loss of your mate who has been by your side for many years! Like the loss of a baby who suddenly begins to choke, turn blue, and then dies in your arms. Like the loss of your health, or the loss of your limbs. “I understand what you are going through,” people sometimes say. But in reality they don’t. Take, for example, the young woman in vibrant health who dives into the surf and becomes a paraplegic, dependent on others for the rest of her life. Now, go back to that bookmark, “yet.” Yet there is One who does understand, One who has been there, One who can comfort you when others offer empty words which sting rather than heal. OK, you say, tell me who this person is.

Paul, who experienced grief, loneliness, persecution, abandonment, and, yes, at times even bouts of depression, described Him as “the God of all comfort.” In the letter we call Second Corinthians, here’s what Paul said: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3). His words are like a balm for the weary soul. Focus on those two phrases in relationship to your life: “the Father of compassion” and “the God of all comfort.” God manifests Himself as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and all three are involved. Jesus came identifying with your needs—God in the flesh.

This is not a make-believe story fabricated by those who wish it were true, but reality touching our world, our lives, at the point of our deepest needs. But God the Holy Spirit, says Jesus, is the Comforter, the One whose touch brings healing and help. In closing please notice that little word all, “the God of all comfort.” You are included in its arms, embraced by a loving God when others just cannot understand.

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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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